Utah: Freedom Path Ad Hits Dan Liljenquist for Missed Votes

A Utah nonprofit organization supportive of Sen. Orrin Hatch is airing a television ad that criticizes his Republican primary opponent, former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist, for missing nearly a quarter of the floor votes held during the 2011 legislative session.

The group, Freedom Path, spent $60,000 on the spot, which began running in the middle of last week and is set to run through the end of next week. The primary is scheduled for June 26.

“Dan Liljenquist didn’t show up to vote 227 times last year,” the ad’s announcer says. “He missed 24 percent of the votes in the state Senate. Now Dan wants to trade his job here [Utah capitol pictured] for here [U.S. Capitol pictured]?”

The ad cites a blog post by a Brigham Young University political science professor on UtahDataPoints.com, which had Liljenquist among the 10 legislators who missed the most votes.